The “Human Catastrophe” of Syrian Refugees in Fragile Lebanon

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/03/catastrophe-refugees-fragile.html

The “Human Catastrophe” of Syrian Refugees in Fragile Lebanon
By Juan Cole | Mar. 19, 2014
(By Lana Asfour)

It wasn’t as if Lebanon didn’t have troubles enough, with a shaky government finally formed last month. But the Syrian refugee crisis is taking a huge toll on a country which desperately needs international support.

After 11 months of political impasse that prevented the formation of a government, Lebanese political parties finally reached a consensus in mid-February. For the time being, a descent into disorder has been avoided. But it remains to be seen whether a collapse of the state can be avoided in Lebanon, a small country vulnerable to regional and international tensions, political and sectarian, and bearing the greatest burden of the Syrian refugee crisis.

The political stalemate was a manifestation of the country’s sharply polarised view of the Syrian conflict—divided into two main blocs since 2005, when the former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated and half the country protested against Syria’s suspected involvement as well as its 30-year occupation of Lebanon. Supporting President Assad’s Alawi regime in Damascus (Alawis being an offshoot of Shia Islam), the “March 8” bloc comprises Hizbullah, the Shia political party and militant group financially and militarily supported by Iran and Syria, and its allies, which include some Christians. Hizbullah has been actively fighting on Assad’s side inside Syria, an engagement strongly opposed by the generally pro-West “March 14” alliance of Sunnis and Christians, as well as by the Centrist bloc that includes the Druze.

The new government is made of three equal blocs totalling 24 ministers (March 8, March 14 and Centrists). Given that March 14 previously refused to talk with Hizbullah as long as it was fighting in Syria, and Hizbullah had refused to accept certain March 14 figures in key ministries, the compromise is considerable—but fragile.